A new video purportedly shows jihadist rebels in Syria firing chemical weapons just hours after the August 21 attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, an incident which stoked global condemnation and was blamed on Bashar Al-Assad’s forces.

The footage shows opposition militants firing shells and rockets at night. They are wearing gas masks and are surrounded by jihadist garb. The video was shot in the early hours of August 21, coinciding with the alleged chemical weapons attack on Ghouta.

The name of the militant group is the Islam Battalion, which is based in eastern Ghouta. The operation is dubbed “al-Reeh al-Sarsar” (Almighty Wind), and the shells are being launched towards the Damascus suburb of al-Qaboun.

As blogger Eretz Zen points out[1], “The name of ‘al-Reeh al-Sarsar’ is coincidentally the name of the “chemical brigade” that posted videos threatening the use of chemicals on Syrian government supporters, especially Alawites, while testing the chemicals on rabbits.”

The video was highlighted by blogger Brown Moses, who has been routinely cited by the mainstream media as an accurate source on chemical weapons. The blogger is by no means an apologist for the Assad regime since his analysis almost always points the finger at the Syrian government for using chemical weapons.

As we highlighted last month[2], a story by Associated Press correspondent Dale Gavlak featured interviews with rebels who admitted being responsible for the August 21 chemical weapons attack. According to the militants, they mishandled chemical weapons provided to them by Saudi Arabia, causing an explosion which led to the incident that killed hundreds of people.

Leaked phone conversations[3] that emerged earlier this year between two members of the Free Syrian Army contained details of a plan to carry out a chemical weapons attack capable of impacting an area the size of one kilometer. Footage was also leaked[4] showing opposition militants testing what appeared to be nerve agents on laboratory rabbits.

Earlier this month, we featured a video[5] of an FSA militant apparently confessing to using chemical weapons in order to follow Osama Bin Laden’s mantra of killing women and children.

Pro-opposition journalists who were kidnapped by rebels and released last week told the media[6] that they had heard rebels discussing the fact that the August 21 attack was not launched by Assad’s forces.